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She cried herself to sleep last night.
It was past three on the afternoon when Uzi finally woke up. Not by her own will, either, but because there was a little claw like arm gently shaking her shoulder.
She groaned, trying to shove it away with her tail as she turned over, pillow being pulled onto her head. "Go away..."
"Hmph, that's no way to speak to your mother..." Nori said softly, a tint of humour in her tone, "...I'm worried about you, sweetie..."
"Go, away..." A wing sprouted from Uzi's back, knocking off her mother to the floor, who huffed.
"Fine dear, if that's how you wanna play it. I'm bringing in... the big guns!"
"Whatever!" Uzi's legs kicked at the sheets, before curling up. It was useless getting out of bed at this point anyways.
She heard the tapping of her mothers appendages, before the door closes with a slight slam. Uzi sighed miserably, she felt like the worst daughter in history—She probably was. Her mom's been trying to reach out for the past few days, and all she does is push her away.
Speaking of reaching out, Uzi lazily searched under her pillow, before pulling put a nifty little knife, normal ass razor blades didn't penetrate her metal skin like this did.
She looked at the door once more, before dragging it across her forearm, it made an ugly screech noise as metal ripped apart, soon followed by her black ichor that was oil.
"Again", she mumbled with a bitter aftertaste left in her mouth.
Again, she did it.
It felt good to be able to release her pent up anger on herself, in the safety of her bedroom. She repeated the process several other times, interrupted by Cyn waking up, coming over to pick at her arm, Uzi's face twists in disgust.
"Gross! Go, what is wrong with you, Cyn!? I'm trying to have bad coping mechanisms in peace!" She smacked her tail/Cyn thing, who giggled.
"Giggle, yum yum!" Before she recoiled away, leaving the Teen just, grossed out.
A knock came at her door. "Uzi? You uhm... okay in there?" Right, N...
"Damnit..." She mumbled, closing her blade and pulling down her sleeves as she spoke up to the door. "I'm fine! Would you guys get off my back!?"
"Woah, it's okay! Uzi, we're just- really worried about you! You've been kinda isolating yourself... alot."
She groaned again, frustration spilled out of her as she screamed into her pillow, asshe flopped down face first, as she just- let herself go limp. The door clicked open, N slowly peeking in, his face softening even further into his sad expression.
"Hey..." He gave a little wave, finally stepping in, the door closed as he came towards Uzi's bed, where she had been the past two days at least.
"Just... g-go away... 'm being dumb." She spoke, voice muffled by the pillow which she hugged oh so tightly. N shook his head carefully.
"You know I can't do that... I-I can't just leave you alone, Uzi..."
"Why, don't trust me not to slit up my wrists?" She spat with a tired tone, N recoiled.
"You know that's not what I mean..." He bit his lip, a hand hovering over her shoulder but, not quite touching it. His eyes couldn't help but glance down to her rolled down sleeves, he didn't... want... to make Uzi feel like he didn't trust her, because he did, he just...
Doubted it.
"...Can I see? Just to make me feel better... please?" He whispered the last part out, she made a slight grunt.
He looked between her head and her arms, whining quietly before he gingerly took ahold of her hand with one hand, very slowly lifting the sleeve that had dark splotches developing on it. He made a hiss as he saw, wincing.
"Oh. Oh, Uzi..." She sniffled, roughly wiping her face as he sat, pulling her into his lap. He held onto her with a firm but comforting hug, rocking back and forth. "I've got you, it'll be okay... I can patch you up again!... it'll be okay, kay?..." He reassured again and again, his chin on the top of her head as he gave her hair scritches.
"...Can I bandage you up?" He added, not wanting to start doctoring her without her atleast acknowledging it—Luckily for him, she nodded. So with a sad little smile, he went to get up, "I'll be right back—Hm?" Her grip tightened on him.
"...S-Sorry, 'm getting my gross oil on you, 'n stuff..." She nuzzled her head into his chest, he patted her back.
"It's okay, it's not your fault you're... Why don't I just carry you?" He offered with an uneasy grin, she looked up at him with annoyance clear on her face, but didn't let go—So he carried her to where they had put a patch kit within the safety of her walls.
Sitting down, Uzi in his lap, he opened it up and got to work with metal wore and pilers—Unfortunately, her cuts looked like they needed to be wielded, but he didn't have one, so wire stitches would have to do.
"Sorry- this, isn't gonna feel very good..." He gave her a rag to bite down on as he got to work. She barely acknowledged him, too numb emotionally to care and too numb physically to react.
He eventually got her metal back together, getting out the colourful bandaids to stick on. It had a little purple skull on it with a bow! "There! All fixed up!..."
"...you can't fix this, N..." She finally managed to speak up. N's face fell, as she curled up into a ball, nearly sniffing again, he hugs her.
"I... I know, sorry... I just meant... well, you're not bleeding anymore, atleast...?"
She just shrugged, head tiredly resting lmnhis chest. "Have you eaten today?" He quietly asked, to which he received no response.
Okay, so next stop was kitchen—There would be plenty of snacks and synthetic oil alike in the fridge. "And, scoop." He whispered as he scooped her up, firstly listening for anyone else, before walking out of her room with a mission in mind.
He shifted Uzi to be on his hip, his tail securely wraps around her waist as he hummed while rummaging through the fridge. He smiled when he got out a plastic jug of the, essentially vegan oil, and some leftovers from yesterday's dinner... which Uzi missed.
"Your mom made some meatloaf last night, it was actually pretty good!" He said as he plated some to heat up, the plate was an old dinosaur shaped one. "I never had any before, but it's yummy! Like oil, except nothing like it at all!" And popped it in the microwave.
Again, no reply given, he went for a cup. "We played cards, your dad had to show her how to play Rummy—" He paused, looking left and right before leaning in and whimpering, "She's really bad at cards—B-But don't tell her I said that! I don't wanna hurt her feelings!" He grabs out a sippy cup instead.
The mircowave beeped, and he put down the now filled cup to get it, his rambles continued. "You know, we played a lot of cards on our ship, I never won though, I think they rigged it against me, those jokers!" He snickered, putting the plate down with the cup, he pulled up a chair and sat criss crossed, Uzi, once more in his lap, he rubbed her back. His talking came to a pause as he noticed she wasn't touching her food. "Hey, Uzi? Can you try eating something for me? Please?"
"Ngh..." She grumbled out, N picked up the plastic toddler fork he had gotten, putting some meatloaf on it before making choo-choo train noises. "Here comes the yum yums!... please? You need to eat if you're gonna feel better!..." His face was hopeful and doubtful at the same time, hoping she'd literally bite. Well, bite the food, not him.
"Hmph..." Finally, she turns her head, only enough so N could feed her the first bite, praising her with headpats. "Good job, buddy! Can you do that again?"
Shyly, she whimpers. Only letting N feed her so he'd like... shut up, or something. She doesn't know! Her brain is too fuzzy to care, so she ate. Occasionally taking sips from the sippy, cool synthetic oil helping improve her ill mood ever so slightly.
After their little improv dinner, N picked her up and went to refill her sippy again. "I think your parents left? Huh, did you wanna do anything?"
Uzi shook her head no. She wanted to go back to bed in all honesty.
"Awe... that's okay!... We'll find something, yeah?..." With that, he took her and her sippy to the living room.
"You wanna go to the park?" She shook her head no. "Hm... wanna watch a movie?" Another head shake. "Toys?" No again. "Uhm... books?" She paused, looking up at him with a pout.
"Oh! Do you want me to read to you?"
She didn't object, and he had to restrain himself from happy squealing—It's been so long since she's engaged in something, progress!
"Well then, let's go pick you out a book!"
He carried her over to a pile of magazines and books alike, luckily, Mr. Doorman rarely threw things out, so he still had just about every book for toddlers from when Uzi was just a little drone. He coos to the girl, "Which one do you want big brother N to read? Maybe... this one?" He picked one up called 'Raggedy Ann'. An old human story.
Uzi thought it was dumb. But N's lit up expression wasn't dumb to her, so in the name of making him happy, she shrugged.
Which, was good enough for him!
"Okay, buckle up, buddy! We're gonna read Raggedy Ann!" He said, plopping her down in the middle of the living room. He stopped, thinking very seriously for a moment, "Hold this?" He asked, handing her the book before his wings emerged, and he glided through the house, swooping down to every pillow he saw before dumping them all by a rather confused Uzi, then he went for blankets.
Once he finally returned, he was also equipped with fairy lights and her pacifier. "Can't have a good story without a good place to read it!"
"Mm... Gimme." She made grabby hands to her binky, which he happily popped into her mouth, before he begun constructing the fort around her. Uzi simply watched contently as his little vision became reality.
Maybe... this wasn't so bad.
Finally, he crawled in after putting the last blanket on as a door. Turning on the fairy lights, he strung them between slight gaps of pillows and fabric, illuminating the interior with a faint but warm glow. "All done! Now, you ready for story time, Uz?"
She nodded sleepily, handing him the book as he scooped over, one of his arms wrapped around her while she took this opportunity to make him a pillow of her own.
"Raggedy Ann, had lots of friends... and her friends always threw a birthday party for her..." His voice faded out as her sleep mode activated, leaving him to softly read to himself while she was off in dream land.
It was... nice. For once, every struggle and anger and everything else was put on hold. Just for her...
She's happy she let N in today.